A. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of group telecommunications conference arrangements and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for simultaneously conferencing a caller to plural service representatives, for example, of a psychic counseling network service such as the Yellow Pages Psychic Network (TM) service available from Zodiac Group, Inc. and to call limiting, call blocking, fraud control and payment and billing arrangements therefor. Two or more service representatives can provide better quality service as the caller receives counseling from plural service providers; for example, the caller may receive a second opinion simultaneous with the first and counseling services tailored and pre-selected to their needs.
B. Description of the Related Arts
So-called physic network services have been in operation for several years, conferencing a service representative who may counsel on life, love and prosperity to a call-in caller to an 800 or 900 telephone number. For a nominal per minute fee, the caller can ask any question of the service representative and, generally, the service representative may give counsel to the caller on any aspect of the caller's life. Such a service typically has not involved the ability to provide more than one service representative to assist the caller. Although so-called add-on conferencing is known in the art of private branch exchange systems, the add-on conference has not been used to date by the first service representative in such a service to conference in a second service representative.
Presently, a caller to the Yellow Pages Psychic Network service dials one of a plurality of telephone numbers used to gauge the quality of the advertising source, i.e., where the caller noticed the network service's telephone number. The telephone number connects the caller to the same service bureau where is typically located an automatic call distribution system. The caller hears an announcement regarding costs and charges that may be referred to as a preamble and is then offered to menu to choose from. If one knows the extension number of the service representative that they have used before, they may enter that telephone extension. The caller is also given a choice to listen to brief resumes of the presently available service representatives to serve them and, if the caller decides on a particular psychic, the caller may press the * button to reach that psychic. The caller is in control of the call and can only speak to one psychic in a call.
Billing arrangements in such systems are primitive and may rely on (900) service for the service provider to bill the caller for the call. In an (800) number call, the service provider pays for the call and must assure themselves that payment will be received even more than in a (900) call. The service records credit card or other payment data manually into memory in order to properly bill for the call. Such procedures have led to many callers questioning their bills and in many instances and due to the inefficiencies of the billing procedures, callers have received free calls due to fraudulent payment schemes, improper granting of credit and the like. In a service offered by a company known as Mile High Psychics, credit cards are used for prepayment for blocks of service usage time. Credit authorization is obtained far in advance of a call. For example, the customer may purchase 25 minutes of service in advance of a call and utilize a personal identification number or code (PIN) at the time of their call to access the service.
Automatic call distribution telecommunications equipment is known for providing this service and other services. Common controlled automatic call distribution equipment, for example, is available for purchase from Lucent Technologies, Inc. and other manufacturers of common controlled switching equipment. Typically a service bureau or related organization offers services through a service bureau owned automatic call distribution system. The automatic call distributor channels a call by a call-in caller requesting service to a next available service representative of a service representative availability queue. It is always assumed that one service representative should respond to the call. Service representatives, typically equipped with displays and operator type headsets for hands-free operation, typically consult databases for, for example, making travel reservations. To this end, they may be each provided with access to large computer databases of travel reservation information.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,874, it is generally known to provide two types of conferencing arrangements: a so-called meet-me conference arrangement and a so-called group conferencing arrangement. The present application as well as the '874 patent describe a group conference call. The term "group call" refers to a conference arrangement whereby one party, called the conference originator, initiates action to summon all other conferees. (The meet-me conference relates to a plurality of conferees meeting at a pre-determined time to establish a conference call.) The '874 patent further describes a conference bridge having a conferee port circuit including associated automatic dialing apparatus for initiating calls to conferees in accordance with prearranged programs. Also, the originating port circuit is equipped with a dual tone multi-frequency receiver circuit and decoder circuitry for controlling various modes of operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,996 solves a problem in a service representative arrangement. Customer service representatives are provided with computer database facilities and display terminals. The agent may view a display of all phone calls waiting to be handled. Customer information may be coordinated for display with a particular call. A caller who joins a call can share information associated with the conference call.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,747 describes a "meet-me" conference arrangement. Nevertheless, the problem solved is the need for a display at a terminal of all the names and telephone numbers of participants in the meet-me conference. According to the '747 patent, a telephone terminal stores conferee identification information received from other telephone terminals and is responsive to actuation of an inspect button to display identification information for each conferee. For example, a single-line alphanumeric display can step through the identity of each of the conferees of a conference call.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,762 describes a system and method for redirecting a telephone call incoming to a first line to a selected one or ones of second lines and ringing them simultaneously. The problem solved by that invention is that a single telecommunications customer can have multiple numbers, a pager, a cellular phone, a work phone and a home phone, for example. The '762 patent suggests ringing a plurality of such numbers simultaneously under control of a processor in physical proximity to the first telephone.
Ronald A. Katz is believed to hold U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,939,773; 5,297,197 and 5,442,688, all directed to the opposite problem than that solved by the present invention. A plurality of telephone terminals T1 through Tn can be grouped, even pre-determined and preselected to form a group, for conferencing with a single primary telephone terminal Pt. A large number of terminals T can receive communication from the single primary terminal P, for example, the president of a company sending a message to its employees. The terminals T are typically equipped with a keyboard, an earpiece (speaker) and microphone, while the primary terminal may be equipped preferably with a display and controller for controlling the group of terminals T. The equipment may incorporate audio response units for assisting in the call processing by making announcements and providing voice signals to cue and inform.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,740 describes a system for enabling user access to and payment for amenities using a telephone for entering billing and amenity identification information connected to a central distribution computer. A billing data base is connected to the central distribution computer for validating entered billing information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,113 and U.S. Patent No. 5,283,829 are both directed to a method for paying bills electronically. According to the '113 patent, a computerized payment system is implemented by which a consumer may instruct a service provider by telephone, computer terminal, or other telecommunications means to pay various bills without the consumer having to write a check for each bill. The service provider collects consumers' information, financial institutions' information and merchant information and arranges payment to the merchants according to the consumer's instructions. Similarly, the 829 patent discloses an electronic bill payment system and method including billing equipment for creating approval records and generating approval numbers for each pre-authorized subscriber. The system also incudes an interactive payment approval apparatus into which subscribes dial to approve payment and which determines, based upon information collected, whether to initiate electronic funds transfer. A series of security checks and comparisons are performed to guard against accidental and malicious entry of approval numbers.
Kaplan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,904 describes a direct telephone dialing system and method wherein a calling customer can electronically order products and services. An Automatic Number Identification (ANI) for the calling customer is passed on to the system for customer identification and credit verification.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,850 describes an information network and method for providing a nationwide audio text network, including electronic billing, useful for a wide variety of applications. The system allows for interactive communication with a computer that supplies the network information to a 1-800 caller. The system is further capable of obtaining electronic credit card authorization or charges, and controls routing an incoming call to redirect the call to a live operator or to other equipment, or to outgoing lines to any desired destination.
Despite these prior art conferencing arrangements and schemes, there still remains a need in the art of providing services to call-in callers requesting services for a conferencing arrangement that better assists the call-in caller to provide requested services, protects the caller from utilizing the offered services too frequently, blocks unwanted calls, provides controls against credit card and other form of payment fraud and, when billing is involved, provides more efficient payment authorization and billing arrangements.